Action VFX from RodyPolis is Live

Hitfilm user, and provider of stock assets @RodyPolis has launched a new venture, Action VFX. The initial launch features new fire, smoke, particle, debris and gunfire assets in 4k and a bunch of 1080p freebies.

@KevintheFilmmaker you might want to contact Rody and the team directly via the Action VFX site. I know there's still a couple things being tweaked on the site and media collections are also still uploading, but Rody might be too busy for the next few days to hit this forum. S'why I did an announcement thread for him.

Side note:in an earlier version of your note, you said "Expensive effects." Depends on what you're comparing to. Compared to Action Essentials II, yes, these are expensive (But Action Essentials II explosions leave the frame and only two of them are actually useful), but Shutterstock goes for like $200 for a 4K clip and $200 for something off Videoblocks (plus subscription fees), so $40 for 4k is actually pretty low for the industry.

Hey thanks guys! @StormyKnight Yea, creating these effects was no easy task. I'm very satisfied with our final results with the stock footage, and I'm really looking forward to creating more effects and improving the site.

@KevinTheFilmmaker"I converted them all to DNxHD and the FPS from 60 to 23.976. Problem solved."

Your media player/viewer probably does not like Prores 444. This is what I see the delivery format as. It might be fine with regular Prores.

Are you converting the files just for an external viewer or for using in Hitfilm as well. If just for browsing externally then why not use AVC/H.264 for smaller playback files.

If for Hitfilm also, and if you convert to some format without an alpha channel then you will need to use the demult effect in Hitfilm to get the transparency back. Also, I would suggest that you not change the framerate in your transcode. Some items are delivered at a higher framerate to allow you to get a slower motion effect if that looks better for an intended use. It just adds more flexibility for a given clip.

@NormanPCN I didn't like how smooth 60 FPS looked. I like 23 FPS more, no stuttering or anything. I also didn't like the file size of 60 FPS. Side by side I dind't notice the difference between the ProRes and the DNxHD175 side by side.

I suppose 60 FPS makes sense for slow motion, but I could always just download a new file if I need one, but I don't shoot anything for slow motion yet, and probably won't be for a very long time.

On my projector, 1080 looks a lot better than 720, and my Canon 600D can only do 60 FPS at 720, so that's a problem.

Changing frame rates is critical to changing the apparent size of fire footage, which is one reason its important to have a higher framerate available. If you take one of those structure fire clips and place it in a 2-foot window, and then place the same footage in a door, which is almost 7 feet tall, you are going to need to change the framerate to properly convey the change in scale.

The core technique of shooting miniatures, whether they be miniature sets or stock, is to change the frame rate you shoot at, based on the scale of the miniature. Mainly so gravity and other forces appear to be working at the scale you want the audience to think the things exist at. And while Rody's stuff is not miniature, the same principle applies to altering the apparent scale of stock.

Fire and explosions are shot at night and/or on a black background for obvious reasons--however as flames die out, smoke tends to fade away, so one can end up with transparency that looks a bit funky. So, how can we fix this?

Take your stock element and duplicate it. Turn off the top copy for now. On the bottom copy add in Tint and either Curves or Levels Histogram (Curves is better, but Levels Histogram works for Express users). Turn off tint for a moment then use the eyedropper to select colors for black and white--sample off the darkest areas of the fire, where it's fading to black (It might be best to have a temp black background for this). Now turn on Tint and set the level of tint to 100%. We're creating a dark orange matte here... Now, in Curves/Histogram select the ALPHA Channel and either drag your output gamma (Levels Histogram) way over to black or drag the white point (Curves) towards black. As you do this you'll see the transparency becoming solid. You could also use Crush Blacks & Whites Alpha or Alpha Brightness and contrast to do this step (are those in Express?). Now add a 1px blur to smooth edges.

Great. Turn on the top layer and play it back--looks better already, yes? Ok, now you can have fun with your top layer--try a blend mode of Screen or Add. Put on glows. Go to town.

Triem23 - Thank you for the great tips! I'm positive they will be employed within a few days. Wish I could show the results but it's top secret for that extremely slow production TV show idea. And it's not mine to share for now. But the technique gives me a few ideas that will be very beneficial.